By Brima Bah
Hardly does a year pass by without a major sporting scandal bordering on cheating in a major sporting discipline by a world renowned athlete, team or even nation. The latest to rock the year 2013 came from the International Athletics Association Federation (IAAF) involving a number of elite athletes including all time greats in sprint like Jamaica’s Asafa Powell and USA’s Tyson Gay, the man who had come close to threatening the reign of the “living legend” Usain Bolt.
They are not the only athletes to have been found to be using banned substances to give them undue advantage over their opponents, nor is athletics the only sport affected. The case of the seven times Tour de France Cycling winner, Lance Armstrong of the USA highlights how deep-rooted cheating is in sport.
In sport, fairness is crucial. Seemingly small actions like a false start in a track event or a false jump or false throw in a field event and diving or simulation in football are regarded as cheating, and are punishable. There are other forms of cheating that are capable of ruining the reputation of a sporting discipline, almost, irreparably.
There are other major forms of cheating that are far more damaging than even the scandalous doping outrages we read and hear about almost on a daily basis. The number one game killer is match fixing, i.e pre-arranging the outcome of a match or a contest. This makes the biggest difference between sport and other forms of entertainment. But even in other forms of entertainment, the audience are kept as much as possible from being able to second-guess the outcome of the literary piece.
In sport, however, even if a pre-arranged outcome is kept secret for generations, the day the truth comes to light the particular sporting discipline will suffer a gigantic blow. The reputation of those involved, with the potential of affecting the entire discipline, will be questioned by even those who were not born to have witnessed the fraud.
In 2006/2007, we saw the great Italian football team, Juventus demoted to Serie B and their titles withdrawn because fixed matches in seasons gone by. People involved in any way in match fixing are regarded as enemies of the game.
Another grave form of cheating is deliberately fielding ineligible players or athletes in a team with a view to taking undue advantage over the opponent. This sort of cheating ranges from fielding opposite sex to under- or over-aged players and using unregistered players or athletes. It could sound surprising to talk about cheating by using the opposite sex, but it is in fact quite possible for a team to attempt to, and even succeed in fielding the opposite sex in a competition for reasons of having undue advantage. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the case of the South African 800m female star, Caster Semenya became a talking point after protests were made against her. Although tests later revealed that she was indeed female, some serious embarrassment had already been caused. But then, with transgender operations these days this form of cheating is no longer bizarre.
At the same Games, there was the other case of China fielding in an under-aged athlete in their gymnastics team. The accusation was proved to be unfounded, but then the point was taken that in sports like gymnastics and diving, the younger the athlete the swifter and the more advantage they may have over the other opponents. Similarly, using over-aged athletes in sports like football, basketball and volleyball, especially in youth competitions, amounts to cheating.
Whereas match-fixing is damaging to the discipline as a whole, fielding in ineligible players does a crippling damage to the individual players, teams and nations involved in this self-defeating fraud. I have observed, rather depressingly, that our national problem of the lack of proper records management is having a devastating impact on our youth. The ease of obtaining a birth certificate or a passport with false information in Sierra Leone is an open secret. One could even obtain one’s own death certificate! My point here is this: I know some so-called Under-21 players or athletes who were my class mates. Whilst my age moves up every year, theirs seem to have got shortened somewhat! It is obvious that a 30-year-old man cannot exhibit the swiftness and pace of an under21-year-old. We have somehow refused to accept this reality. The consequence, though glaring, we have refused to acknowledge. Some bold local sports pundits have openly argued that the less than satisfactory performance of our footballers in the Diaspora could not be completely unconnected to this fact. The thing is simple: their documents say they are 19 or 20 years old, but they play like they are over 30. The qualified and competent trainer in Europe automatically spots the mismatch. However good the footballer might be on the ball he would exhibit a discouraging short of energy and pace. Older players are signed because of their superior experience. But if a player is coming from Africa, his experience could hardly be considered for assessment. Sometimes, I just think about how many of our players who go on trial overseas only to return and continue playing locally, are forced to do so because of the reason discussed. Press conferences are called when they are departing, but when they return no report is ever made. So we are left to guess.
Shying away from this problem is like hiding a debilitating ailment that could be cured if reported to and handled by the competent persons. People frown at the mere mention of this weakness, but for God’s sakes we are wasting our future generation of players! Age cheating, most times, starts very early and is often doctored by elders and managers who have no business handling children. They seem to take advantage of the stunted physique of some of the boys, largely due to malnutrition in their early childhood, ignorant of the fact that the bones and lungs get old, alongside the true age. Double victims! As early as in their youth age, they become subjects of controversy.
This matter has been the biggest challenge of credible youth competitions like the “Airtel Challenge”. It is not surprising to see boys who should be in Senior Secondary School forced down to Junior Secondary School just to be qualified to be in football projects like the Bellamy Foundation’s outreach programme. For them, associate players must be under 16 years and in school. Consequently, a lot of the boys who had dropped out of school have returned to the classroom.
Back to cheating: the latest and most rampant form of cheating in Sierra Leone sport is the questionable registration and clarification of the status of players or athletes, in almost all disciplines. But it is far more pronounced in football apparently because of the popularity of the sport. This has been the messiest business in the mismanagement of football in Sierra Leone. All players playing division football in the country are supposed to be registered with the regional Football Associations. What is no secret however is that registration process is so wishy-washy that a number of players play division football without ever having been registered. This should have been impossible, but when whenever Division 1 or 2 football competition plays, and you happen to witness any of the matches, you would understand why this is possible. A spectator can even feature for a team, if they wish to.
There is not sufficient evidence to point at tampering with the registration process, but it is evident that there is a serious shortcoming in records management at the regional level. The mess naturally filters down to the Community Amateur Association which is striving to ensure that non division football is played by non division players. I salute their bravery, but there will always be incidents that will affect their own reputation, because the majority of fans would not understand where the problem truly lies – with the regional bodies that have failed to support and regulate non division football. Some teams shamelessly take advantage of the mess and deliberately field in division players in a non-division competition. The unsuspecting boys would not realize the damage done to them by manipulative team officials who shout the loudest about the crookedness of the SLFA when, in fact, in their own way, at their level, they are far more corrupt.
Cheating in sports is a universal challenge that is being vigorously pursued, with a view to minimising it as much as possible. In Sierra Leone, cheating is a taboo subject, and even when its impacts are glaring we are still very much in denial.
Author is a sport commentator and analyst
© Politico 05/09/13
